Little Boxes

The other day, I wrote about my daughter's love of putting me in jinx, and my husband's refusal to ever be put in jinx.

Anonymous responded with this comment,

That brings back memories! My siblings and I had our own version of "Personal Jinx." "Jinx" meant you couldn't talk at all until someone said your name. "Personal Jinx" meant that it could only be undone by the person who jinxed you. If we said "jinx" at the same time, we would rush to be the first to say "double jinx!" (that meant your name had to be said twice). Then there was the ultimate jinx: "Double Personal Jinx!", said with much pride and excitement at being able to utter such a rare and powerful curse. (Of course, this led to some intense arguing if a person refused to comply.)

To which I replied,

Yeah, I still don't get that whole, "...refused to comply." I just never knew that anyone could break from that kind of authority and snub the jinx.

I'm too rigid in my thinking, clearly. Some of you people can see outside of the box and therefore think outside of the box and ultimately BE outside of the box.

I'm just glad I now realize there is a box!

Maybe I'm not being completely fair with myself. I mean I homeschool my kids, and while not as fringey and strange as that once was, people can still look askance as their wheels are turning in their heads at the thought...I had homebirths with my two kids. They were two wonderful, awesome, amazing, powerful births that gave us our healthy, beautiful babies. We had a family bed until the kids were ready to sleep on their own in their own beds. I can only recommend a King size if you plan on fitting two adults, two little kids and two cats all aboard. We have a king size. A lot of kids sleep with their parents and aside from comfort issues people either feel OK with that and enjoy the normalcy of its naturalness, or they feel guilty and want to get their kids independent as soon as possible by making them sleep alone at night because that's what you're supposed to do. Well, we don't do what you're supposed to do because we do what we do! There are other natural, non-typical ways to live that we have adopted and it all works for us.

Maybe we're not in the little boxes that I think we're in. Maybe my recognizing the jinx is just a vestige from the literal thinking I had (and sometimes still have) when I was a kid. There's a black and white thinking there that is hard to shake unless you look totally beyond the boundaries.

I think a lot of people are still stuck in that thinking. If this is white, than this must be black. If that country is that way, then we must be this way. If there's a problem, there must only be one solution...well no. No to all of that. There are all sorts of realities and ideas and suggestions that may be contrary to one another and yet all still be true. There may be shades of differences rather than exact opposites.

Radical thinking, eh?--especially in this age of lapel pin criticism. How about passing a G.I. bill that supports the troops and their service as a means of showing patriotism? Might that also be a patriotic act? Might that show love of country?

Any way, I am glad that I know there are boxes, and other than the jinx, I think I've broken out of them in a lot of ways. But, I think jinxing someone is fun, and my kids do too. I don't mind staying in that little box with my kids, just don't try to put me in any other little boxes...